Two Norwegian aquaculture equipment suppliers, Multi Pump Innovation (MPI) and BKW, have agreed to work together to increase product development and broaden the range that the companies offer worldwide.
The agreement began on 1 April and involves close collaboration within a number of areas including sales and marketing, research and development, plus increasing the capacity of equipment testing used by companies in the aquaculture industry.
“We will jointly offer service companies and fish farmers a package consisting of MPI's robots to clean the nets and BKW’s barges to clean both the pen rings and wrasse shed cleaners,” explained Kåre Myrvåg, chief executive of MPI.
The agreement sees MPI take on the sales and marketing responsibility for the products BKW has developed. Additionally, the two companies will cooperate closely in order to develop new, cost-efficient solutions and products for the aquaculture industry.
Increased test capacity
MPI will also extend BKW’s test capacity for net cleaning robots and other equipment, further developing BKW’s full-scale test facility in Valsøyfjord, east of Kristiansund, Norway.
“The investments we will make in BKW’s test facility will make us less dependent on equipment testing at our customers’ facilities, which means both time and cost savings for our customers. In addition, customers of both BKW and MPI will be able to benefit from equipment demonstrations in Valsøyfjord,” added Kåre Myrvåg.
